The Ferguson Group Blog

Wednesday News Roundup

Every Wednesday, the TFG Blog posts a series of articles published over the previous week that discusses topics of interest to local governments. Learn about emerging trends and keep up on key policy issues by browsing the TFG Wednesday News Roundup!

Big-City Mayors Tap Grad Students for their Teams

The Bohnett fellowship program in Detroit, New York and Los Angeles is giving graduate students city governance experience while helping mayors get the much-needed extra help.  So far, the foundation has provided $2.5 million to sponsor 52 fellows. This program is part of a larger effort by mayors’ offices across the country to enhance their workforce by taking interns from local universities. Read more...

What Smart Cities Will Look Like

While no one knows, exactly, what the future smart city will look like, visualizations can prove helpful to those working to transform cities. Future Structure has compiled several videos that provide a vision of how smart cities of the future may work. Read more...

House Panel Agrees to Prioritize Climate Change

Today, the Republican-led House Natural Resources Committee voted unanimously to include climate change and its impacts on natural resources as a subject in its oversight plan. Thanks to an amendment sponsored by ranking member Rep. Raul Grijalva (R-Ariz.), the committee said it will “conduct oversight of global climate change and impacts on federal lands and resources and the strategies for using federal lands, oceans and other resources to mitigate harmful effects.” Read more...

REAL ID Act Catches Up With States

Currently, nine states are in noncompliance with the U.S. Department of Homeland Security’s REAL ID Act efforts, which is consequently affecting driver’s license holders in those states who are trying to gain entry to federal facilities nationwide. Lawmakers are scrambling to fix the problem, but resolving the issue has posed some difficulty. Read more...

How Local Governments are Preparing for FirstNet

Local governments are starting to update their infrastructure to prepare for the FirstNet public safety network. See how others are making moves to update their current systems. Read more...

Wednesday News Roundup

Every Wednesday, the TFG Blog posts a series of articles published over the previous week that discusses topics of interest to local governments. Learn about emerging trends and keep up on key policy issues by browsing the TFG Wednesday News Roundup!

 

Obama 2015: Back to the Future

President Obama’s State of the Union address was an optimistic message that focused on his aggressive agenda for the last two years of his presidency, promising to overcome political divisions to get things done. Politico summarizes the hour-long speech, but if you don’t feel like reading about it, they condensed the whole speech into a 90 second video clip. Read more...

 

The State of the Union 2015 in Photos

Bloomberg compiled a photo essay of last night’s State of the Union address. “The fourth quarter starts now.” See photos here.   

 

Getting Smart about the Water We Use

In a challenging environment of budget constraints and extreme weather conditions, local officials are taking action to minimize water-related costs for their governments and the residents they serve. These are some of the most common obstacles that cities faces in attempting to improve their water management systems, along with strategies some have used to overcome these challenge. Read more...

 

New Anchorage Housing Development Will Produce More Energy than it Uses

An Alaska design and architectural firm is partnering with a nonprofit housing agency to design and erect a building that gives more than it takes. The planned multifamily housing unit will produce more energy than it consumes and uses on-site water and sewer reclamation systems. Read more...

 

Can You Make Disaster Information Go Viral?

San Diego County and San Diego State University (SDSU) recently formed a partnership to research and develop a new social media-based platform for disseminating emergency warnings to citizens. The project aims to allow San Diego County’s Office of Emergency Services (OES) to spread disaster messages and distress calls quickly and to targeted geographic locations, even when traditional channels such as phone systems and radio stations are overwhelmed. Read more...

 

Build Workforce Housing to Meet Economic Demands

In many cities, there is often a lack of affordable housing to meeting public demands. Cities are using low income housing tax credits and other similar funding sources to construct affordable workforce housing developments to fill the gaps. Read more...

Wednesday News Roundup

Every Wednesday, the TFG Blog posts a series of articles published over the previous week that discusses topics of interest to local governments. Learn about emerging trends and keep up on key policy issues by browsing the TFG Wednesday News Roundup!

 

Obama Aims to Unleash Broadband Boost

During a speech in Iowa on Wednesday, President Obama asked the Federal Communications Commission to override state laws that restrict community-run broadband networks, to provide new tools to mayors who want to build such networks, and proposed revitalizing a program of grants and loans for city-run broadband projects. The President’s announcement is part of a rollout of tech-related initiatives that will be part of his January 20 State of the Union address. Read more...

 

Counties Lag behind National Recovery, Report Finds

A new report released by the National Association of Counties found that the economic recovery has yet to be realized at the local level in much of the country. The analysis considered four measures: job totals, unemployment rates, economic output (GDP) and median home prices. Only 65 counties (out of more than 3,000 nationally) have seen all four economic measures fully recover from pre-recession peaks. Read more...

 

Problem Properties: A Pre-emptive Strategy toward Neighborhood Stability

On July 13, 2011, then-Mayor of Boston Thomas Menino signed an executive order that created a special task force for the city’s most risk-prone and risk-causing addresses. The result was the Problem Properties Task Force, which aims to identify properties that disproportionately attract illegal and dangerous activities using cross-agency collaborations and data analysis. Read more...

 

Homes for the Homeless in Utah

Utah’s Housing First program employs a simple ideology for ending homelessness: provide homeless individuals with housing. The idea has yielded impressive results. Not only has chronic homelessness dropped 74 percent since the program’s inception, the program is extremely cost effective. Read more...

 

Bright Future Seen for Smart LED Streetlight Projects

An interconnected network of smart streetlights can serve a city by monitoring traffic and weather, providing real-time video, audio and Wi-Fi, broadcasting city announcements or advertisements, directing event parking or illuminating evacuation routes in an emergency, among many other things. Cities are rapidly starting to jump on the LED smart streetlight bandwagon, some estimating that by 2019, there will be around 40 million network-controlled streetlights in cities around the world. Read more...

Wednesday News Roundup

Every Wednesday, the TFG Blog posts a series of articles published over the previous week that discusses topics of interest to local governments. Learn about emerging trends and keep up on key policy issues by browsing the TFG Wednesday News Roundup!

White House Issues Keystone Veto Threat 

Just an hour into the start of the new Congress, the White House warned President Obama would veto pending legislation to approve the Keystone XL oil pipeline, setting the dynamic between the White House and the Republican majorities of both chambers. The White House believes that the State Department's analysis of whether the project is in the best interest of the country should be the determining factor in the decision to allow the pipeline to proceed or not. Read more...

 

Ceremonies, Reflection and Chaos Define the First Day of Congress

The first day of a new Congress is always hectic. New members are juggling ceremonies, open houses, and taking their oaths of office, all while they navigate the labyrinths of halls throughout the Capitol. Amidst the chaos, however, members new and old expressed their eagerness to get legislating. Read more...

 

Philly, Residents Co-Create City Website

The city of Philadelphia has released a prototype of its next website that is hoped to be a collaborative effort with citizens. The construction and design of the website is based on resident opinion and the city’s own experimental tinkering. “Rather than making assumptions about what people want to see, and designing it behind closed doors, we’re actually designing it as we go along,” said Philly’s Chief Innovation Office. Read more...

 

2015’s Top 10 Legislative Issues to Watch

Governing Magazine has released a list of the top 10 legislative issues states and localities should watch for in 2015. They also include five trending policies and problems that governments should keep an eye on as the year progresses. Read more...

 

Why Innovation Districts Matter 

In the aftermath of the recession, cities across the country are building strong foundations to support institutions and modern companies that collaborate with startups and entrepreneurs to spur growth and new ideas. Not only do these innovation districts create a link between research, business and entrepreneurs, but they also spur productivity, sustainable economic development and collaboration. Find out why innovation districts are becoming integral parts of local economies and how some cities are successfully working to nurture their growth. Read more...